There are 1.7 million wheelchair users in the US. Many of these individuals use motor vehicles for transportation purposes. Due to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) there is an increase of accessible i vehicles, allowing wheelchair occupants to stay seated in their wheelchair during transit. Unlike OEM motor vehicle seats, wheelchairs are not designed to protect occupants from injury during (motor vehicle) impact. Besides failure of wheelchair frames and caster fork assemblies during normal wheelchair usage, study findings also indicate that wheelchair caster-fork assemblies (front wheels) are often incapable of withstanding the forces associated with crash level loading. Extreme caster-fork bending or metal fracture exposes wheelchair seated individuals to increased risk of injury when compared to other vehicle passengers seated in OEM seats. The aim of this project is for FrogLegs Inc. to develop a crash load absorbing caster-fork assembly for use on power wheelchairs to reduce risk of injury to wheelchair riders in motor vehicles. The proposed design features energy-absorbing qualities and shall withstand crash loads up to 8,000N associated with those experienced in a motor vehicle crash. The design will minimize wheelchair and occupant excursions (motions), loads and accelerations during frontal impact and rebound associated with frontal impact. In collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, the following aims have been stated: 1. Find effective energy absorption characteristic for a front caster-fork assembly that minimizes wheelchair and occupant excursions and accelerations when a wheelchair is in a vehicle accident. 2. Develop prototype energy absorbing caster-fork assemblies for use on power wheelchair frames. 3. Get evidence through dynamic impact testing and finite element analysis on loading patterns and failure modes of the prototype caster-fork assemblies. 4. Perform sled impact testing showing that the prototype energy absorbing caster-fork assembly reduces occupant injury (using an instrumented anthropomorphic test device). Upon successful completion of Phase I, FrogLegs will pursue Phase II STTR funding to further develop the transit safe caster-fork assembly for daily use on a variety of wheelchairs.
Thesaurus Terms: assistive device /technology, safety equipment, technology /technique development, transportation /recreation safety evaluation /testing, person with disability, vehicular accident computer simulation
